NEW
DELHI, Nov 27: India has the highest bribery rate in Asia and the most
number of people who use personal connections to access public
services, according to a new report by corruption watchdog Transparency
International.
The Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) Asia, found that nearly 50 per
cent of those who paid bribes were asked to, while 32 per cent of those
who used personal connections said they would not receive the service
otherwise.
The report is based upon the survey which was conducted between June 17
and July 17 this year in India with a sample size of 2,000.
“With the
highest bribery rate (39 per cent) in the region, India also has the
highest rate of people using personal connections to access public
services (46 per cent),” the report said.
Bribery in public
services continues to plague India. Slow and complicated bureaucratic
process, unnecessary red tape and unclear regulatory frameworks force
citizens to seek out alternate solutions to access basic services
through networks of familiarity and petty corruption, the report said.
“Both
national and State governments need to streamline administrative
processes for public services, implement preventative measures to combat
bribery and nepotism, and invest in user-friendly online platforms to
deliver essential public services quickly and effectively,” the report
said.
Although reporting cases of corruption is critical to
curbing the spread, a majority of citizens in India (63 per cent) think
that if they report corruption, they will suffer retaliation, it said.
In India, 89 per cent think government corruption is a big problem, 18 per cent offered bribes in exchange for votes.
About
63 per cent of surveyed people think the government is doing well in
tackling corruption while 73 per cent said their anti-corruption agency
is doing well in the fight against corruption, it said.
Based on fieldwork conducted in 17 countries, the GCB surveyed nearly 20,000 citizens in total.
UIDAI launched the Aadhaar in the form of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) card in October.
UIDAI launched the Aadhaar in the form of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) card
in October this year. Just like your debit or credit card or PAN card,
you will be able to carry the PVC Aadhaar card in your wallet. UIDAI puts it as ,"Loaded with the latest security features, your Aadhaar
is now more durable, convenient to carry, instantly verifiable
offline." UIDAI allows residents of India to get their Aadhaar letter
reprint on PVC card by paying nominal charges of ₹50.
Residents who do not have registered mobile number can also order using
non-registered or any alternate mobile number. In fact, one person can
order Aadhaar PVC cards online for the whole family, using his or her
mobile number.
UIDAI in a recent tweet wrote, "You can use any mobile number to
receive OTP for authentication, regardless of the registered mobile
number in your Aadhaar. So, one person can order Aadhaar PVC cards
online for the whole family. Follow the link
https://residentpvc.uidai.gov.in/order-pvcreprint to order now."
Here's the tweet:
#AadhaarPVCcard You
can use any mobile number to receive OTP for authentication, regardless
of the registered mobile number in your Aadhaar. So, one person can
order Aadhaar PVC cards online for the whole family. Follow the link https://t.co/TVsl6WZqlp to order now. pic.twitter.com/ivoaQ7QgAN
> Go to the link: https://residentpvc.uidai.gov.in/order-pvcreprint
> Fill in your Aadhaar Number or Virtual Identification Number or EID to order Aadhaar card.
Aadhaar card comes with security features i.e. Digitally signed Secure QR code, Hologram, Ghost image, Guilloche pattern etc.
> Click on 'send OTP.' You can order Aadhaar card using your
registered mobile number or Alternate mobile number to receive OTP.
> Aadhaar preview is available on use of registered mobile only.
Preview of Aadhaar card details is not available for Non-registered
mobile based Order.
> Time-Based-One-Time-Password (TOTP) can also be used via m-Aadhaar Application.
> After submitting the OTP, you will need to make the required payment and your PVC Aadhaar reprint will be ordered.
The Tamil Nadu company has now set a target to sell the pistols to civilians by the end of March 2021.
By Tanmay Chatterjee
The Glock is sold to citizens in many countries, including the USA. (Courtesy- https://eu.glock.com/en)
Currently serving with the military, police and special forces
in more than 70 nations, including India, America, England and France,
the famous polymer-frame Glock pistols from Austria may soon be
available to Indian citizens in non-service calibres.
In
2019, the Tamil Nadu-based Counter measures technologies pvt. ltd.
(CMT) and Glock Ges.m.b.H, Austria, entered into a partnership to
produce the pistols at the CMT plant in Tiruvallur district, which is
part of the state’s defence industrial corridor planned by the Centre.
The
joint venture was initially signed for supplying Glocks only to the
government. With permission from the Centre, CMT has now set a target to
sell the pistols to civilians by the end of March 2021, one of the
Indian company’s directors and major shareholder, Jayakumar Jayarajan,
told HT.
For India’s civilian arms market, the arrival of the
Glock will be a game changer, stakeholders feel. The pistol is sold to
citizens in many countries, including the USA.
“The
Covid-19 lockdown delayed our project by more than six months. We are
trying to pick up speed. Our first priority is to supply the 9 mm
pistols to the armed forces. Civilians will get the .22 LR, .380, .357
Sig, .40 and .45 calibre pistols. We have permission to set up our own
proof testing facility,” said Jayarajan.
“A team from Glock
landed in Chennai in January 2019 and flew to Delhi to meet Union
defence ministry officials after visiting our site. In the delegation
was a man who was part of the team that helped the designer, Gaston
Glock, make the first pistol in 1981,” said Jayarajan.
Today, Glock produces fifth generation pistols with competitors following its polymer technology.
In
India, the majority of licensed firearms owners are saddled with old or
antiquated foreign handguns imported before 1984 or the ones being made
by government ordnance factories. The erstwhile Congress government at
the Centre banned import of all types of firearms in 1984, giving
exemptions only to national and international shooters and state
agencies.
Though out of reach of India’s gun owners till now, the
world’s first military service pistol to sport a light polymer frame
and trigger safety feature, is a familiar name to the nation.
A
9 mm Glock 26 compact pistol was the only weapon wing commander
Abhinandan Varthaman was armed with when he was captured in Pakistan in
February 2019 after the Balakot air strikes.
Glocks
also went into action with National Security Guard (NSG) commandos
during the terror attack on Pathankot air force base in 2016 and in
other operations.
“We support any initiative that promotes the
‘Make in India’ programme and moves us closer to an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’
(self-sufficient India),” said Delhi-based Abhijeet Singh, spokesperson
for National association for gun rights India (NAGRI), the only
pan-nation organisation fighting for liberal gun laws for citizens.
Prakash
Simson, owner of Simson gun house in Mangalore, Karnataka, said,
“Indians still pay a premium price for 50 or 70-year-old handguns
because of their reliability. The India-made Glocks have to meet
people’s expectations. But before that, the government must ensure that
law-abiding citizens get gun licence without being caught in red tape
for years. If licences are not issued there will no market. The
companies will wind up their business.”
A
gun owner and sports enthusiast, Yuvraj Yograjsinh of Mansa, Gujarat,
said, “Glocks are not made in .32 ACP which is the most popular pistol
calibre in India because the ammunition is made by our ordnance factory,
the other one being .22 LR. Ammunition for the rest of the calibres
being offered to civilians by CMT is not made here. Imported ammunitions
are frightfully expensive. This needs to be addressed first.”
Jayarajan
said CMT has been given permission to manufacture ammunition of all
calibres, ranging from the small .22 LR to the 12.7 x 108 mm heavy
machine-gun cartridge used by the army. “We plan to make the ammunition
factory operational by the end of 2021,” he said.
Protesters carry a national flag during a rally against the citizenship act in Calcutta on Thursday. (AP)
February 2020, New Delhi: A journalist
with a Hindi news portal was assaulted in riot-hit Maujpur in northeast
Delhi and forced to drop his pants to check if he was circumcised.
Rioters in Maujpur had also threatened to take the pants off a
photojournalist to confirm his religion before he was let off.
Last
Sunday, the unspeakable depravity that unfolded on the streets of
Ahmedabad and Delhi gate-crashed a doctor’s cabin in Calcutta and preyed
on a mother’s worst fears.
The paediatric surgeon, Subhasis Saha,
had conducted a procedure called circumcision on the woman’s child for
medical, not religious, reasons.
The surgeon had explained to the family, who does not belong to
any religion that mandates circumcision, that surgeries for phimosis
are performed through either of the two procedures — circumcision or
preputioplasty.
“Preputioplasty helps retain the foreskin which
is lost in the case of circumcision. But preputioplasty is far more
challenging than getting rid of the foreskin. It involves curing the
foreskin, saving it and ensuring that the situation does not recur
warranting another procedure later,” the surgeon explained.
That
Sunday, the surgeon had to perform two surgeries for phimosis in the
Calcutta hospital. “Both the patients were from a community that doesn’t
mandate the procedure. For one child, I could undertake preputioplasty.
However, for absolute medical reasons, circumcision was the only way
out for the other kid,” Saha recounted.
“When I told the child’s mother that I had to opt for circumcision, her face fell,” the surgeon said.
“The
woman’s brother told me that his sister was worried about the operation
ever since she read reports about the two journalists who were caught
in the recent riots and the way they were made to prove their religious
identity,” Saha said.
He added: “A socio-political crisis has come to influence a medical intervention.”
“It
has not been many days since the northeast Delhi riots, but it has
already left an indelible scar on the minds of parents of kids who have
been advised surgery for phimosis. The parents are worried because their
religion do not require them to undergo the process, but it has to be
done for pure medical reasons. They have already worked the Internet and
are suggesting that I undertake preputioplasty,” the surgeon added.
For
medical reasons, more than 2,000 circumcisions, including on adults,
are performed by general surgeons, urologists, paediatric and plastic
surgeons every month in Calcutta and its surroundings alone, doctors
said, adding that it was a conservative figure.
The Sunday incident does not appear to be an isolated one.
Another
doctor who also performs surgeries for phimosis but didn’t want to be
named said: “In the past few weeks, a couple of parents have approached
me with requests to retain the skin. In our WhatsApp group, doctors are
debating this trend with concern.”
Uday Shankar Chatterjee, who
pioneered preputioplasty in the city a little over two decades ago,
said: “When I had started the procedure, it was about saving the prepuce
or foreskin for medical reasons. In the context of the Delhi riots, it
gives a new dimension to the procedure.”
A Calcuttan whose son
had to undergo the procedure a few years ago recalled: “It was after the
Gujarat riots but it did not even occur to me then that what some thugs
did there will have any bearing on my child here in Calcutta. My son’s
health was my sole concern.”
“When the doctor recommended
circumcision for my son, I readily agreed. Now, I think what has
happened to our country of late is making us fear that such horrors need
not be confined to distant places. They can happen anywhere now,” he
added.
Sociologist Surajit C. Mukhopadhyay said: “This shows how
innocent people are getting drawn into the vortex of fear and that they
are trying to build a defence mechanism in a possible riot situation.”
He
pointed out: “The parents are aware that scientific explanation will
not wash with the bloodthirsty mob. So, they are trying to keep their
children safe.”
Mukhopadhyay added: “People who are not honed into
the majority and minority binary are trying to publicly show their
allegiance to the majority out of fear. This is almost a reflection of
what thousands of Germans did when they displayed their support for the
Nazis. Fear has overtaken democracy, and civil edifices are being
systematically destroyed. We are being pushed back to an era we had
supposedly left long ago.”
Psychologist Mohor Mala Chatterjee
echoed Mukhopadhyay. “Such actions of parents show how deep the threat
runs. Whether children or adults, the anxiety over the medical process
will definitely weigh negatively on their mind.”
advertisement
Pure Salon & Spa Koramangla, Bangalore
Led by veteran hair stylist Pure Salon & Spa offers various services from the simple hair cut and styling for women, men, kids, and brides, to vibrant hair colours, conditioning treatments, and Brazilian blowouts. Located at the heart of Koramangla, Bangalore, the salon has been around since 2015, providing professional hair treatments in a relaxed ambience. This is definitely one of our favourite hair salons in Bangalore.
Tens of thousands of people had applied for the latest jobs in Bihar's police force
More than 1,000 men have reportedly been arrested in India's
Bihar state for impersonating candidates in physical fitness tests for
the police.
The men had been hired to pass themselves off as the candidates, according to the state police.
The arrests were made over the last fortnight, as documents produced by the men were found to have been falsified.
Photographs of mass cheating in Bihar's secondary school exams provoked an outcry earlier this month.
More than 300 people, many of them parents, were arrested after the publication of the pictures.
Last year, some 150 people were arrested in Bihar for cheating in a written exam for police constables, Indian media say.
However,
a Bihar police official told the Times of India newspaper that the
latest round of arrests is the largest ever made for impersonation.
Some
52,000 people were selected for the physical fitness test, according to
Indian media, with the state government hoping to recruit around 12,000
police constables from their ranks.
The scheme links ration and Aadhaar cards with a view to curbing corruption and increasing transparency in the system.
To make it easier for people to avail the service, the govt will also accept other identity proofs
New Delhi, Mar 23 : Delhi will become the first state in the country to launch an e-ration card service which links ration and Aadhaar cards with a view to curbing corruption and increasing transparency in the system. The service will be inaugurated by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal next week, a senior government official said in New Delhi.
“Anybody with an Aadhaar card can apply online for a ration card. Those who are waiting for an Aadhaar card can also apply for a ration card with the Aadhaar card number on the online slip. Ration card will be now linked with Aadhaar card,” the official said, adding that those who do not have access to the Internet can apply at the office of their respective MLAs.
To make it easier for people to avail the service, the government will also accept other identity proofs. “We want to make the system easier so that the maximum number of people can avail the service. Those who don’t have an Aadhaar card can provide some other valid identity proof to apply for ration card,” the official said.
According to a senior officer, although a similar service has been announced by the Punjab and Maharashtra governments, Delhi would be the first to implement it. Through the new service, an applicant can also take the print of his ration card, which will be valid like e-ticket. “We had received many complaints of corruption in the process of distribution of ration cards in Delhi.
We have now brought the entire process online. All the work done in the ration card department can be checked online,” officer said, adding that the digitisation of records will also expose fake or duplicate ration cards. Along with the online ration card, Delhi government will also start issuing temporary Fair Price Shop (FPS)-licences. According to government data, there are around 25,000 FPS in Delhi.
“It takes around three months time to issue and set-up an FPS, which is operated by private players to provide subsided foodgrains. In case of cancellation of any licence, the process of issuing a new one is too lengthy. So, the government will now issue temporary licences in seven days which will be valid for three months,” the official said.
Kolkata, Mar 12 : Finding fault in India's Look East and counter-terrorism policies, experts here on Tuesday stressed upon India's significance in fostering regional cooperation in South Asia.
Participating in a two day conference on 'Building Pan Asian Connectivity', the experts, however, exuded confidence of a change in the scenario following positive steps by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"India's counter-terrorism policy has been criticised by experts on grounds that it concerns only mid and short term responses. Some of the experts have said that it is mired in systematic weaknesses with terrorists having the upper hand," said Julio Amador III, Deputy Director-General, Philippine Foreign Service Institute.
"However, under Modi, counter terrorism is being seen as a key national policy and seems to give renewed attention to terrorism as a security challenge," said Amador.
Observing that most ASEAN members have had problems in effectively collaborating in combating terrorism, Amador said India needs to be consistent in it counter-terrorism policy.
"The onus is on India to coordinate with the ASEAN members to forge closure cooperation in combating terrorism. It also need to consistent in its counter terrorism policy and spell out what it specifically wants from the ASEAN members regarding this," added Amador.
RAND Corporation senior political scientist Jonah Blank said India's Look East policy was yet to translate into action.
"When it comes to Sino-India rivalry in Southeast Asia, China is winning the trade war hands down. Though India's trade relation with ASEAN has improved, it is not very fast. India also lags China far behind in terms of connectivity. Commercial flights from India to the region are sparse," said Blank.
"But with Modi government having fewer political constraints than its predecessors, there are reasons to believe that the present should not be like the past. Modi's engagement with Japan, the US and ASEAN as well with China are very positive signs," added Blank.
Lamenting the lack of connectivity and infrastructural deficiencies, Sanjoy Hazarika, director of the Centre for North East Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia wondered why the north eastern state governments were not made stakeholders in India's Look East policy.
"There is a need for greater inclusive approach. We have extremely poor internal connections with the North East- not only in terms of rail, road or air connectivity but also of services. If you don't have vibrant social services, roads and railways are not going do anything in connecting people," said Hazarika.
"The problem is 60 years down the line, the central government still perceives North East to be a disturbed area. When the governments from here are not stakeholders how can you go ahead with such a policy," said Hazarika.
"The need is to build new generations of politicians, scholars and professionals who can engage more in developing the cooperation. The focus should be more at the micro level initially then we can look at the larger picture," added Hazarika.
India reported 20 swine flu (H1N1 virus) deaths on Sunday, taking the death toll to 832 even as the number of cases crossed 14,000.
On Saturday, 38 deaths were reported, the highest number of swine flu deaths in a single day this year.
In 2014, India had 937 swine flu cases and 218 deaths.
This year, Rajasthan is the worst hit, with more than 4,000 cases and 200 deaths have been reported.
Delhi and Gujarat have had more than 2,000 cases each in less than two months.
The Drug Controller General of India G N Singh has directed all states to set up a ‘Swine flu drugs availability monitoring cell’ with a designated officer to monitor there are no drug and vaccine shortages even as some states like Kashmir reported vaccine shortages.
All chemists have also been asked to prominently display availability of medicines.
Experts maintain that H1N1 virus is no more deadlier than last year cases and deaths are being reported simply because more people getting tested and diagnosed. Most deaths are among people over 40 years.
While infection appears to be waning in Telangana, new states such as Jammu and Kashmir are reporting cases.
Kashmir With one more H1N1 virus infected patient dying on Sunday night, the total number of swine flu deaths in Jammu and Kashmir rose to six on Monday while the number of infected people went up to 120.
"One more H1N1 infected patient died yesterday (Sunday)," Parvaiz Koul, pulmonary disease specialist at the super-specialty Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar, where eight people are currently being treated.
"We have provided sufficient medicines and preventive advisories to the families of patients being treated at home, which include using a face mask and washing hands and cleaning surfaces frequently," he added. "The most important precaution is to avoid social and religious gatherings during these days.”
Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh, which has reported 280 cases and six deaths since January 1, has enough medicines in stock, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Azam Khan informed the State Assembly on Monday.
State capital Lucknow is the worst hit, reporting 228 of the 280 cases from across the state. "There is no need to panic due to swine flu. Those who are saying hundreds have died due to disease are wrong. We have made all the arrangements to deal with it and have sufficient amount of medicines,” said Khan.
The minister said this after the swine flu issue was raised on the assembly floor by BJP suresh Suresh Kumar Khanna ,as the House met, who demanded a statement from the government on rising cases of the virus in the state.
West Bengal Five persons have succumbed to swine flu in West Bengal, with 67 testing positive for it, state Minister for Health Chandrima Bhattacharya told the state Assembly today.
The minister said there is no shortage of medicines and testing kits at hospitals to tackle the spread of the H1N1 virus.
The health department is taking all necessary steps to control the spread of the disease and trying to spread awareness, she said, adding that the virus is not being spread through swine but through the air.
Mizoram Mizoram has started swine-flu screening and testing all passengers arriving at Lengpui Airport after a woman arriving from Delhi tested positive on February 13.
All passengers arriving with cough and fever are being tested. Mizoram has had one swine flu case and no deaths. The state Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme's Nodal Officer Pachuau Lalmalsawma said the screening was being conducted after obtaining permission from the Aviation department.
The IDSP officials will also start the screening people arriving in the state at the Mizoram-Assam border Vairengte town soon.
Am isolation ward to treat infection has been created at the Referral Hospital at Falkawn village near Aizawl and a special laboratory for testing has been set up at the Aizawl Civil Hospital.
Musahari/Ukhrul/ Kushinagar:
As the car climbs up a hilly road amid the rocky
landscape of Manipur, Union land resources secretary Vandana Jena
remembers her days here in 1981. “Civic infrastructure, roads were
almost non-existent. It was a four hours back-breaking journey to Ukhrul
from Imphal. No work in the evening as diesel-generated power went off
after 5 pm. There was no water supply either,” she said. Back then Jena
was Ukhrul’s sub divisional officer.
Sitting in his first office in Musahari — the birthplace of Naxal
movement in Bihar — parliamentary affairs secretary Afzal Amanullah
could easily remember his stint as a young assistant magistrate 34 years
ago. The rot in the system, frustrating corruption and lack of civic
amenities had haunted people then. “Now, little has changed,” quips
Amanullah.
It was a different ‘ghar wapsi’ — or return to the roots — for
top-notch bureaucrats last month. As planned by Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, all secretary-level officers working with the central government
went back to their first place of posting to review its progress.
The tours (HT accompanied three bureaucrats in as many states) threw
up mixed revelations: There was palpable progress in road and
tele-connectivity, agriculture and income of villagers. But in many
places social infrastructures like school, health-care or toilets still
remain in the dark ages.
Eighty-odd secretaries would be giving detail reports to the Prime
Minister’s Office on how their first areas of posting fared in
development over time.
Information and broadcasting secretary Bimal Julka was happy to see a
weaver colony which he had set up in 1981 in Madhya Pradesh’s Ashok
Nagar thriving and helping locals generate substantial income. “There
were only ramshackle huts. Now almost everyone has pucca house. There is
an all-weather road to Guna with a railway over bridge.”
Coal secretary Anil Swarup also has a tale of success to share while
visiting Tamkuhiraj tehsil in UP’s Kushinagar district: “It’s
unbelievable to see so many girls cycling to schools. Back in the 80’s,
when I was posted in Padrauna, there were just a handful of girls
attending schools.” Swarup joined the elite Indian Administrative
Service with first posting at UP’s Kushinagar as joint magistrate.
But these policy-makers also find that despite hundreds of government
schemes running in paper, there are little or shoddy implementation in
most of them.
Amanullah is the only Bihar cadre secretary-level
officer now working at the centre. In Narauli, he visits a cluster of
Indira Awas Yojna — the scheme for housing for poor — only to find that
the entire colony has not a single toilet. Nearby lied Prahladpur, a
village where a central grant of `32 lakh went back unspent due to
non-utilisation.
Julka too, hardly found toilets as he toured an entire division:
“Hygiene and cleanliness was far from satisfactory even in the
government offices. School buildings are also in bad shape. There is an
acute shortage of doctors and medical staff in local government
hospitals and health centres.”
“During our field visit, when we had to stay the night at some
village home, we had to go out in the open to attend to nature’s call,”
says Jena. She, however, spots many village homes now with a toilet.
Similarly, Swarup visited Bandhu Chapra, once notorious for anti-social
elements, and finds dramatic changes with pucca roads, a majority of the
children going to school, houses under Indira Awas Yojana. “There are
tubewells at regular intervals,” said Swarup.
These reports, albeit local stories are likely to give reference
points to the PMO while it shapes newer strategies. But in most of the
cases, thrust areas of different governments like hygiene and
cleanliness, e-governance, employment, etc. still lies in the dim shadow
of underdevelopment.
New Delhi: Appreciating the Jan Dhan scheme for setting a Guinness record of opening most number of bank accounts in a week, BJP today lauded the efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the achievement and for inclusion of 11.5 crore poor with country's economy.
BJP also accused the Congress of keeping such people out of the economic reform process for last many decades for their own vested interests and for their "corrupt" practices.
"This shows that 11.5 crore poor have reposed their faith in the Prime Minister and deposited their 9,000 crores in zero-balance accounts under the Jan Dhan scheme, whom Congress kept out of the financial system due to their own vested interests and corrupt practices," BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said.
He said this is a clear indication of the Prime Minister's intent of weeding out corruption and not allowing it to flourish, as during the previous Congress regime.
"A certain section of society was deliberately kept out of the financial system due to Congress' 'mission corruption' and its vested interests of leakages in subsidies and benefiting brokers and middlemen to siphon off public money," he said.
Sharma also lauded Prime Minister's efforts in helping those sections kept away from the financial system to be included now under the scheme, through which the poor will benefit largely.
"This is the result of Modi's vision, good governance and commitment that even World Bank is now predicting that India's economy will grow faster than China's in the coming times," he said.
Financial Services Secretary Hasmukh Adhia earlier said that Guinness Book of World Records has recognised the achievements made under Jan Dhan scheme.
In its citation, the Guinness Book said: "Most bank accounts opened in one week as part of the Financial Inclusion Campaign is 18,096,130 and was achieved by the Department of Financial Services, Government of India from August 23 to 29, 2014."
Announcing the financial inclusion scheme in his first Independence Day speech last year, Modi had set a target to open bank accounts for 7.5 crore poor persons by January 26, 2015. The target was later increased to 10 crore accounts
India and China disagree over the demarcation of several Himalayan border areas
India has unveiled plans to build a mountain road along the disputed border with China in the country's remote north-east.
The $6.5bn (£4.06bn), 1,800km (1,118 miles) all-weather road
will stretch from Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh state to where the borders
of India and China meet with Myanmar.
The road will connect sparsely populated and poorly-connected
hill communities living in four large frontier districts of Arunachal
Pradesh.
It will also help farmers in the mountainous region to
transport their organic crops and medicinal herbs to low-lying and busy
markets in neighbouring Assam state.
"This road will not boost our defences but help connect far
flung communities for economic development denied to them for so long,"
says India's junior home minister Khiren Rijiju, himself a resident of
Arunachal Pradesh.
But Indian military officials say the road will help consolidate Indian defences.
This represents a change in Indian military thinking that has
so far opposed developing roads near the border, in case it is used by
the Chinese during a conflict for speedy movement inside Indian
territory.
The road, however, could could ignite fresh tensions between India and China.
The world's two most populous countries disagree over the
demarcation of several Himalayan border areas and fought a brief war in
1962.
'Colonial legacy'
Chinese foreign office spokesperson Hong Lei has said India's
plan may "complicate" the boundary dispute which he described as a
"colonial legacy".
"Before a final settlement is reached, we hope that India
will not take any actions that may further complicate the situation. We
should jointly safeguard the peace and tranquillity of the border area
and create favourable conditions for the final settlement of the border
issue," he told reporters in Beijing.
Chinese officials say it is not fair of India to undertake
such a huge road building project in an area which is still in dispute.
"Once the dispute is resolved and the boundary is clearly
demarcated, India can build such roads in its territory, but it would be
unfair to build a road in a disputed territory," says Kong Can of the
Yunnan Development Research Institute.
He says India should agree to develop the BCIM
(Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar) highway and economic corridor from
Calcutta in India's West Bengal state to Kunming in China's Yunnan
province cutting through Bangladesh, India's north-eastern states of
Assam and Manipur and Myanmar's northern provinces.
"This highway and economic corridor will help integrate our
economies and open huge opportunities for developing our under-developed
frontier provinces and create a climate of trust that will help resolve
the border dispute," Kong Can said.
India is going slow on the project, so far just agreeing to "explore" its possibilities.
Roads in Arunachal Pradesh are poor and make troop movement difficult
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has responded to demands
from his security establishment to develop its defences against China,
which has reportedly beefed up its military infrastructure in Tibet with
a string of new railway lines, roads and at least five new airports.
Also, the rail route to Lhasa is likely to be extended to
Nyingchu, close to the Arunachal Pradesh border, Indian military
officials say.
"China has vastly beefed up its military infrastructure in
Tibet and we are only catching up. Unless we do that, China will always
arm-twist us on the border and try to impose a solution on its terms,"
says Lt Gen JR Mukherjee, former chief of staff in India's eastern army.
Last month India and China pulled back troops after a two-week stand-off
near their de facto border in Ladakh. Chinese President Xi Jinping was
visiting India when India accused his country of the fresh territorial
incursion.
Many believe that has added to Indian apprehensions and could
have influenced the decision to build the long border road that now
upsets China.
Subir Bhaumik is a former BBC correspondent and author
Bangkok, Sep 26 : India today invited Thai businesses to invest in the country and said it attaches top priority to the development of the North-East states as it opens a corridor into South-East Asia.
India's Ambassador to Thailand, Harsh Vardhan Shringla referred to various initiatives taken by the new Indian government to take the country's trade and development to a new plateau.
"Opening the North East creates a corridor for us into South East Asia," Shringla told a gathering of Thai commerce ministry officials, trade department representatives, ethnic Indian Thai businessmen and academia on the sidelines of a live telecast function showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi launching "Make in India" campaign.
Those who had gathered to watch the telecast, organised by the Indian Embassy with the assistance of India-Thai Chamber of Commerce, wanted to know about Indian Government's new "Make in India" campaign and developments in India's North-East region.
"We hope to attract Thai investors," Shringla told the assembled gathering.
Prime Minister Modi today launched the "Make in India" initiative in New Delhi to make India a manufacturing hub by attracting foreign companies to set up their manufacturing units.
Chinese travel writer Hong Mei at the India-Pakistan border at Wagah with her American husband Tom Carter.
The author Hong Mei called it a transformative journey about India's rich and diverse culture
A brush with Bollwood stars, encounters with Maoists besides exposure to
election campaigning enlivens the narrative of a rare backpack Chinese
woman's transformative journey to the nooks and corners of India.
Hong Mei, 34, who travelled India for several months in 2009 along with
her American husband, Tom Carter released her travelogue book in Chinese
language titled "The further I walk, the closer I get to me", stated to
be the first such account by a contemporary Chinese about India.
In many ways it is a transformative journey about India's rich and diverse culture, she told PTI
During the visit, she participated in festivals and events like Kumbh
Mela, Pushkar Camel Fair, Holi besides the general elections campaigning
in 2009.
Pushed by Tom, who had done a pictorial book along with her on all the
33 provinces of China highlighting its diversity, Hong had relatively
comfortable travel in India as she was mostly mistaken as someone from
India's North-East provinces or from Japan.
Travelling with a budget of about USD 20 a day, the twohad a good
exposure to Indian way of life in the North, South and Western regions.
Tom was chosen as 10th batsman in a cricket match scene in the Bollywood movie Dil Bole Hadippa.
While in Mumbai, Hong had an insightful exposure to 2009 elections as the candidates canvassed in a festive spirit.
For someone hailing from country with a One-Party-rule (Communist Party), it was a spectacle of political harmony.
Both had an enduring experience feeling the heat travelling in areas where Maoists are active in Orissa.
Significantly Hongs accounts of elections as well as her Maoist
encounters were edited out of book as authorities in China were cagey
about such narratives influencing the Chinese.
Hong Mei poses with a tribal child in Odisha.
The two had close calls travelling to India’s border areas with Pakistan
in the Kutch region of Gujarat as well as the Wagah border point on the
Indian side of Punjab.
Her best moments in India were taking part in the cultural festivals
like Holi and the worst part was she missed her regular intake of food
due to excess exposure to vegetarian food in India while Tom fell sick
grappling with poor immune system.
Hong said her ground breaking backpacking journey to India illustrates a
growing trend among new Chinese middle classes to quit their jobs to
hit the roads abroad.
Indian travels in a way impacted her as she says the religious fervour
in India had left a mark of influence as she turned spiritual.
She is also thinks that despite trying conditions, Indians appeared
happier compared to their Chinese counterparts despite their material
success.
Burma
will supply 100,000 tonnes of rice to India, to meet the need for the
commodity in the states of Mizoram and Manipur (PHOTO:wikicommons).
By BINNY MARY PAUL
India, the largest rice exporter in the world, is set to
import around 100,000 tonnes of rice from Burma, which was once the
largest exporter of the commodity.
The move is a result of logistical bottlenecks that will hinder the
transportation of rice to the northeastern states of India. The rice
import is a preventive measure to avoid a supply crisis in the states of
Manipur and Mizoram, where a railway construction project is underway.
In the absence of feasible transport routes to connect Mizoram and
Manipur with the rest of India during this phase, the Food Corporation
of India will import rice from Burma, which is well connected by road to
these northeastern Indian states, according to a report in the Indian
daily, The Economic Times.
Though what seems like a temporary arrangement, the move seems to
further calibrate India’s “Look East” policy, in which bilateral
relations with Burma have always been prioritized to combat Chinese
monopoly in the region.
All efforts to increase India’s bilateral trade with Burma are viewed
as an essential and natural strategy to increase Indian influence
within a country that it shares much with, including a colonial history
and a 1,009-mile border.
The decision to import rice from Burma, even despite surplus
production at home, fosters a mutually inclusive economic understanding
between the two countries, which are both competitors in South Asia for
rice export.
The rice import also provides an opportunity for India to explore and
identify the potential capacity of the northeastern states, volatile
with secessionist and insurgent groups, but also shares an extensively
vast percentage of its borderlines with regional neighbours. According
to areportpublished
by Gateway House, an Indian think tank, the exchange of commodities
between India and Burma via its northeastern terrain will aid India in
tapping into the hitherto neglected role that northeast can play in
further strengthening the trade possibilities between the two countries.
At present, it is unclear whether the trade route will be via the Chittagong port or via land routes, although The Economic Times suggests the latter. Interestingly if the trade is to be via road, it will be carried out across the commonly disputed borderlines of Burma and India.
The landscape of northeast India, which merges relatively seamlessly
into Burmese territory, has been a belt of narcotic activity and arms
trading, and is also infested with insurgent rebel groups on either side
of the border.
Former Indian military commander, Rahul Bhonsle, who spearheads Security-Risks.com/South Asia, explained to DVB about
the need to buckle up security at either ends of the trade routes. “In
the case of the land route being used, adequate checks [must be
implemented] to ensure that the [rice] transportation is not used by the
criminal and militant nexus operating across the borders to their
advantage,” said Bhonsle.
The increasing importance of transport routes via India and Burma as a
priority was emphasised at the fifth annual Indo-US strategic dialogue.
The strategic importance of building transport trade routes via Burma
serves a twofold purpose for India: increasing trade connectivity; and
serving as a strategic entry portal into Southeast Asia.
For Burma, the export deal with India comes at a time when the rice industry faces stiff competition from its neighbours; the Myanmar Rice Federation demanded tangible rice policies earlier this year to match the level of surplus production of other rice-exporting countries.
The latest five-year national export strategy, unveiled by the
Burmese government on 5 September, has accredited rice exports to be of
“highest importance” in 2014-15, reported Oryza, a leading rice industry publication..
“The [Burmese] government is planning to explore newer markets for
its rice exports,” it said, part of a strategy to revive Burma’s once
famed rice export legacy.
With this deal underway, India will be importing rice after almost three decades.
Rajnath Singh asserted that the Government will take all steps to ensure communal harmony.
New Delhi, Aug 12 : The government is ready to talk to northeast insurgents as
well as Maoists if they shun violence, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said
Monday.
Replying to a debate on the working of home ministry in
the Rajya Sabha, Rajnath Singh said: "Left wing extremism is a big
challenge for the country but the government will not allow anyone to
indulge in violence. If they shun violence, we are ready to talk."
On
the northeast insurgents, the minister said: "We are ready to talk with
any extremist group under the purview of the constitution. Peace in
northeastern states is our priority."
The home minister added that
every Indian citizen will get identity cards within three years to end
the problem of illegal migrants.
KASHMIR ISSUE
Expressing
desire to bring about permanent solution to the Kashmir issue, Rajnath
Singh said the government is willing to have any dialogue under the
ambit of 'insaniyat' (humanity) to address the problem and favours good
relations with Pakistan.
"We want to find a permanent solution to
Kashmir issue. We are ready for any kind of dialogue within
Constitutional framework... If necessary, we are even willing to hold
dialogue within the framework of 'insaniyat'," the home minister
informed Rajya Sabha.
In this context, he sought the cooperation of opposition Congress if it could help in any manner.
He
said India also wants good relations with Pakistan and is ready to hold
talks with that country to end the problem of infiltration.
COMMUNAL VIOLENCES
The
Minister asserted that the Government does not discriminate on the
basis of caste, creed or religion and blamed "vote-bank" politics for
the recent incidents of communal violence and said it will not tolerate
such occurrences.
Singh said, "We are aware that India is not a
country of any one community, caste or region. Our government is
committed to ensure justice to all on the basis of 'insaniyat'
(humanity). Our concern and priority is 'rozi, roti and suraksha'
(employment, food and security)."
Referring to the communal
incidents that have taken place in Uttar Pradesh recently, he said, "the
situation deteriorated only because of vote-bank politics, nothing
else."
He asserted that the Government will take all steps to ensure communal harmony.
The
reply, which lasted nearly two hours, tested the patience of Rajya
Sabha members, with several of them urging the minister to conclude.
Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien also asked Rajnath Singh a few times how much time he is going to take to complete his reply.
The reply only ended at about 9.30 PM
Rajnath
Singh made it a point to reply to all points raised by the members, and
addressed issues ranging from insurgency, to communal harmony.
Congress
leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi went ahead to say that they will not ask
the home minister any questions again, while his party colleague Anand
Sharma was seen gesturing at the minister with folded hands.
When
some members complained of being hungry, Communist Party of
India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury said in a lighter note that
communists are habituated of being hungry, but the house must take a
break so that food can be arranged for other MPs.
When the
minister finished his reply, Kurien complimented him and said: "The
House compliments you for replying to every member's point."
2.46litres is India’s average per capita consumption of pure alcohol in 2010, according to WHO
Summary
As Kerala attempts phased prohibition, a look at how the country holds its drink
The abstainers
Prohibition is in force in Gujarat, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland
MIZORAM
The Mizoram Liquor Total Prohibition Act 1996 banned the sale and
consumption of liquor, but permits called ‘red cards’ are issued to
ex-servicemen and others on ‘health grounds’. Tourists may also bring
alcohol. Though government figures say about 60-odd people have died
from consuming spurious alcohol since 1996, the numbers are likely to be
higher.
Rs 600-800 is the price of a bottle of bootlegged whiskey.
DRINK TO THIS: Country liquor and IMFL are freely available at
Rangvamual and Phunchawng, west of Aizawl. So when people head there,
they say, “RV ila”, literally “Let’s RV”, RV being the short form for
Rangvamual.
MANIPUR
Prohibition was imposed in 1991. Manipur has a tradition of
‘neshabandhis’, locals usually led by the famous ‘Meira Paibis’ or
‘Mothers of Manipur’ who went around cracking down on alcohol. A cabinet
decision five years ago to reinstate liquor licenses hasn’t made any
progress. The law is not imposed on some SCs and STs who are traditional
liquor brewers. So locally brewed rice beer and wine is openly
available at Sekmai, Andro and any Kabui village.
Rs 1,800 is the price of a bottle of bootlegged whiskey.
DRINK TO THIS: Everything from beer to whiskey to rum can be got from
hidden vends. Myanmarese, Chinese and Thai beer are easily available.
NAGALAND
The Nagaland Total Liquor Prohibition Act 1989 was passed in 1990. But
traditional ‘Zu’ and ‘Rohi’ liquor can be prepared and consumed. Last
July, then CM Neiphiu Rio admitted in the Assembly that prohibition was a
failure. Liquor flows freely from neighbouring Assam.
Rs 600 lakh per year is what the excise department generated before
prohibition. The department now gets around Rs 10 lakh per annum in
fines.
DRINK TO THIS: On May 26, Commissioner of Excise in Nagaland issued
an order to destroy 4,488 cases of seized IMFL. A civil society group
arrived to discover that only 2,394 were destroyed and the rest were
missing.
GUJARAT
Prohibition has been in force since 1960 and a 2011 amended version is
called the Gujarat Prohibition Act. Foreigners and NRIs need permits to
drink and can get them at the airport. The permit lets them buy buy two
units (750ml) every 10 days. A domicile can get permits only on health
grounds.
Alcohol can be legally consumed at SEZs, of which the state has
22. In 2009, 150 people died in Ahmedabad from drinking spurious
liquor.
Rs 3000-4,000 crore is the estimated annual loss in excise duty. The
bootlegging network is said to earn at least Rs 1,500 crore annually.
DRINK TO THIS: Bootleggers, called ‘folder’, deliver IMFL at your doorstep.
Hafeez Contractor high above Mumbai in a current project, the Minerva, with his Imperial Towers in the distance to the right.Credit
Mahesh Shantaram for The New York Times
The
offices of Hafeez Contractor, India’s most commercially successful
architect, are on Bank Street, just around the corner from the Mumbai
Stock Exchange. The prestige of the address, however, is undermined by
the beleaguered state of the Raj-era building. In the reception area, a
flat-screen displaying a loop of Contractor’s futuristic projects is
mounted on a cracked, stained plaster wall. Upstairs, hundreds of
designers sit shoulder to shoulder at long rows of computer monitors,
packed in almost as mercilessly as on the commuter trains that ferry
them to work each day. The office has struggled to keep up with the
firm’s expanding work force and is perpetually under construction. Staff
members were known to walk 15 minutes to the five-star Taj Mahal Palace
Hotel rather than brave the employee-restroom line. Contractor has
vastly increased his square footage by building a loft, but a day at the
office now entails ducking through archways, dodging stray wires and
ignoring the wail of power saws.
On what used to be a shantytown, the Imperial Towers now loom over low-income apartments.Credit
Mahesh Shantaram for The New York Times
From
this unlikely office, Contractor is helping to create the face of
21st-century India — a nation of flourishing wealth and entrenched
poverty that looks, according to the economists Amartya Sen and Jean
Drèze, “more and more like islands of California in a sea of sub-Saharan
Africa.” More than anyone else, it is Contractor who is responsible for
building those “islands.” He has done this in part by designing
elaborate corporate campuses on the outskirts of cities, like his
projects for Infosys, the Bangalore-based technology giant that employs
more than 160,000 people. For Infosys, he built a software-development
park outside Pune that features two avant-garde office orbs, which
Contractor calls his “dew drops,” and a 337-acre corporate educational
facility near Mysore that is laid out around a columned structure
Contractor designed to look like St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.
In New Delhi’s D.L.F. CyberCity, Contractor constructed a sprawling
office development for blue-chip companies including Microsoft, KPMG,
Lufthansa and American Express. His most famous project is Hiranandani
Gardens, in suburban Mumbai, not far from the airport, where Contractor
designed the domestic terminal. The 250-acre mixed-use neighborhood
achieved some measure of fame when it served as the backdrop for India’s
breakneck development in the 2008 film “Slumdog Millionaire.” In one of
the movie’s more famous scenes, a character gazes out at the
neighborhood’s skyline, dominated by what appear to be Greek temples
stretched 33 stories into the air, and declares, “India’s at the center
of the world now.”
The
neighborhood, named for the billionaire real-estate-developing
Hiranandani brothers, certainly bears its architect’s signature
flamboyance. But what defines a Contractor project is the feeling that
you are in a world apart. It houses more than 15,000 people and includes
offices for more than 150 companies; it has its own school, its own
hospital and its own recreational amenities, like Nirvana Park. All of
this is supported by a vast system of backup power generators and
sewage-treatment facilities that free the community from India’s
notoriously dysfunctional infrastructure. At Hiranandani Gardens, you
can almost forget you’re in a nation where 300 million people lack
electricity. You certainly don’t have to worry about bathroom lines.
Inside Hiranandani Gardens — taking a meeting at Colgate-Palmolive,
lunching at Pizza Hut — there is little, save the auto-rickshaws buzzing
down Technology Street, to remind you that you’re even in India. And
that is precisely the point.
Contractor’s
projects constitute a kind of alternate India, an archipelago of green
zones in which Indian professionals inhabit a first world behind walls
and security checkpoints, insulated from the chaos that has long
hamstrung their homeland. Unlike most developing countries, India has
pursued professional-services-led economic growth, opting for office
parks over sweatshops. India “looks like no other developing nation,”
the Mumbai-born pundit Fareed Zakaria has written. “India’s G.D.P. is 50
percent services, 25 percent industry and 25 percent agricultural. The
only other countries that fit this profile are Portugal and Greece —
middle-income countries.” Contractor has found his niche in building the
offices where India’s professional services are produced and the
residences, hotels and shopping malls where Indian professionals spend
their time and money.
While
the world wonders whether India, under the incoming pro-market
government of Narendra Modi, can return to the blistering growth rates
it was consistently posting before the global financial crisis,
Contractor only obliquely acknowledges that the recent sputtering of
India’s economy has affected his practice. Certain projects that would
ideally be built quickly, he concedes, are instead being built in
stages. Regardless, he prefers to look forward. The total acreage of an
upscale satellite city he’s currently building near Delhi (when combined
with a neighboring nature preserve) “will be larger than Central Park
in New York,” he crowed. “Now that’s called creating history.”
In February,
Contractor took me to see one of his newest projects, an 85-story
Y-shaped condominium tower called Minerva that is being built atop a
former shantytown. As we rose in the steel-framed, open-air construction
elevator, the oft-obscured fact that Mumbai is a tropical island
revealed itself, with the Arabian Sea stretching out beyond the lush,
green oval of the Mahalaxmi Race Course. We ascended to the 26th floor,
just a slab of concrete that was poured 10 weeks earlier. From this
vantage point, we had an excellent view of the kinds of buildings
Contractor is known for building in city centers — luxury high-rises set
in the middle of India’s slums. To our left, next to the most expensive
home in the world — the industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s $1 billion
personal high-rise — were Contractor’s sleek Imperial Towers, built on
the site of one of the city’s first slum redevelopments. Moving from
left to right, Contractor pointed to the Four Seasons Hotel, which he
worked on. “Atria Mall is us,” he continued, “and we’re doing three
towers in that slum” next to a modern building with a pitched roof.
Squinting out over the metropolis from this altitude, it was easy to
spot the skyscrapers, but the teeming, low-rise slums — just undulating
mounds of tarp and corrugated metal — were harder to locate. When I
spotted the shantytown, Contractor added, “That pitched roof is also
us.”
To
call Hafeez Contractor Bollywood’s starchitect would not do justice to
his fame. He is more like a luxury brand. The entire headline on a
billboard for a new housing development in Kolkata read, “Designed by
the famed Hafeez Contractor.” The architect does product endorsements
for companies as if he were a movie star: computer makers (HP) and
airlines (Swissair). When Indians talk about Contractor, they generally
call him simply Hafeez.
Stylistically,
Contractor’s buildings have no signature, save a penchant for glitz. “I
always say . . . that you definitely like a woman with lipstick, rouge,
eyelashes,” he told me. “So if you make your building more beautiful
with some appliqués, there’s nothing wrong.” Instead of a style, what
most unifies Contractor’s projects is that they actually get built.
Architecture has long been described as the most political of the arts,
and the key to Contractor’s success is as much his mastery of the policy
levers of the world’s largest democracy as his talents as a designer.
Combining the skills of an architect with those of a political
operative, Contractor can read new regulations and immediately find
exploitable loopholes and work behind the scenes to shape legislation
that serves his business. He cultivates friends in high places, and he
has learned to time his public statements judiciously. “There are
several good ideas that I have announced at the wrong time,” Contractor
told me. “Just before [the] election, some party accepts it and — with
good fortune or bad fortune — the other party comes, and he kills it.”
Most crucially, he has mastered the art of rhetoric, of phrasing his
private interests in terms of the public interest.
Inside the high-rises, several million dollars buys not
only granite countertops and Arabian Sea views but also electricity that
never goes out and water that always runs.
Nowhere
is this more evident than in Contractor’s effort to redevelop Mumbai’s
slums. When India became independent in 1947, only a small segment of
Mumbai’s population lived in shantytowns; by the 1990s, after wave upon
wave of job-seeking domestic migrants arrived, roughly half the city’s
estimated 10 million people lived in them.
The
local government has long been vexed by the problem. Until 1970, the
city held that informal settlements were illegal, and it sent the police
to clear them in periodic crackdowns. Then it switched gears and
endorsed so-called slum upgrading, adding basic amenities like
streetlights and public toilets to informal neighborhoods. But between
the government’s penury, endemic corruption and the ever-growing size of
the problem, progress was limited. Today Mumbai’s best-known slum,
Dharavi, packs a population comparable to San Francisco’s into less than
one square mile of urban space. Its jerry-built structures can rise
several stories, the upper floors accessible by ladders that extend down
into darkened alleyways. Though families are large and child labor is rampant, the average household income in the neighborhood hovers around $60 a week.
Contractor
had long supported a grand bargain in which developers would be given
the opportunity to build market-rate projects on valuable land covered
by slums in exchange for providing new, free housing for slum dwellers.
He argued for such a policy in the media as well as in private
conversations with politicians. In 1995, when the conservative Shiv Sena
Party took power in elections in Maharashtra state (Mumbai is its
capital), Contractor saw an opening. But it required cozying up to one
of the least savory figures in Indian politics: Bal Thackeray, the
leader of Shiv Sena and a political cartoonist by trade, who openly
admired Hitler and rose to power by pitting Mumbai’s ethnic groups
against one another. His followers called him by the honorific
Balasaheb. The local press dubbed him “the uncrowned king,” because
Thackeray was not an elected official but a party boss. He controlled
Mumbai through a devoted following of Hindu youths that he could call
upon to paralyze the metropolis with protests — or riots — if he didn’t
get his way.
Shiv
Sena came to power on a platform of “free housing for slum dwellers”
but lacked a concrete policy for putting it into effect. After the
elections, Contractor says he set his staff to work on a comprehensive
study of Mumbai’s slums. His team came up with a plan to allow
market-rate development of skyscrapers with extended height limits in
exchange for rehousing the slum dwellers. In a closed-door meeting,
Contractor recalled, he presented his proposal and got Thackeray to
endorse the grand bargain over the objections of his deputies.
As
Contractor spoke with me, he couldn’t hide his disdain for Thackeray’s
populist pretensions. But he had a grudging respect for his ability to
get things done — specifically Contractor’s own agenda. “You need a
strong guy,” Contractor said.
Although
he credits Thackeray, Contractor calls himself “the real architect of
slum-redevelopment policy.” It’s an audacious claim, given that the
policy details were worked out by a committee on which Contractor did
not serve. But whatever the extent of his role, in the years since
enactment, Contractor has become the go-to architect for transforming
shantytowns into plots that combine low-income apartments and
ultraluxury condominiums. Inside the high-rises, several million dollars
buys not only granite countertops and Arabian Sea views but also
electricity that never goes out and water that always runs.
Given
Mumbai’s surreal inequality, Contractor’s market-based plans have made
him the architect that Indian intellectuals love to hate. P. K. Das,
Mumbai’s best-known radical urbanist — he is known as an
architect-activist — is the nemesis of market-friendly architects like
Contractor. Das rails against slum-redevelopment policy as a ruse to
privatize prime plots of real estate, tarring it as the “greatest bluff
ever perpetrated on the city’s poor.” While Contractor claims his
structures, with their reliable utilities and sewage treatment, model
best practices for the rest of India, critics like Das worry that giving
India’s most influential citizens high-quality infrastructure amid
India’s poverty removes the political will to make basics like reliable
power and potable tap water universal. Providing basic services to the
rich and not the poor bespeaks “a state of underdevelopment, not a state
of development,” Das told me in his studio.
At the Infosys campus outside Pune, Contractor built two avant-garde orbs that he refers to as his “dew drops.”Credit
Mahesh Shantaram for The New York Times
Following
the tour with Contractor of his Minerva project, we headed across town
in his chauffeured white S.U.V. to have lunch at an upscale Indian chain
restaurant in a shopping mall. The busy street life passing our windows
— fruit sellers hawking their produce, young rag pickers filling their
giant tarp sacks with scavenged recyclables, women in abayas going about
their daily chores — seemed to be far removed, as if we were watching a
documentary about Mumbai’s poor from the comfort of a well-appointed
theater. At the Jacob Circle roundabout, a teenager gunned his motor
scooter the wrong direction around the one-way traffic circle, his
helmetless friend hanging on tight behind him. “Look at this guy!”
Contractor offered, more in amusement than in anger. “Bombay” — he still
calls it that — “has gone wacko.”
As the surname
suggests, Contractor’s family has deep roots in the building trades.
Family lore has it that his great-great-grandfather helped build what is
now the University of Baroda, 250 miles north of Mumbai in the state of
Gujarat. The Contractors were part of the tiny Parsee community in
Western India privileged by the British. By the early 20th century,
Contractor says, his ancestors were wealthy industrialists, well
diversified into power plants and liquor.
Hafeez
was born in Mumbai in 1950, part of the Midnight’s Children generation
that never knew the British Raj. Despite the joys of freedom, it was an
inauspicious time to be born — and not only because Hafeez’s father died
unexpectedly just 13 days before his birth. The family was foundering.
The newborn Republic of India looked with disdain on the Contractors’
industrial concerns. Private power plants would have no place in
Jawaharlal Nehru’s state, and alcohol would be banned in Gandhi’s
spiritual nation.
But
if politics destroyed the Contractor family’s fortune, under Hafeez’s
savvy guidance, politics would rebuild it. After barely securing a spot
in architecture school, the young Hafeez excelled. His senior project
was displayed at Mumbai’s leading contemporary art museum, and he won a
postgraduate scholarship to Columbia University, where he earned a
master’s in 1977. Contractor came to find Manhattan seductive, but
unlike many Indian professionals, he vowed to return to India rather
than use the fellowship as a ticket out. “The temptation was so great,”
he recalled, “that I said, ‘Graduate in the afternoon, catch a flight in
the night.’ And I literally meant it. I left for my flight from the
farewell dinner.”
In
the India he returned to, apartments meant for low-income residents
were hemmed in by a square-footage limit that was part of the Urban Land
Ceiling and Regulation Act, passed while Contractor was in New York.
The legislation capped some apartments at just 40 square meters (430
square feet), but nearly as soon as the regulations were enacted,
Indians found a simple way to flout them: Husbands and wives would buy
adjoining units and then remove a wall to combine them. That was just
the first step. The race was on to come up with a design that could
conjure the feel of luxury within the still-modest 860-square-foot
flats.
In
the impeccably air-conditioned glass-and-steel sales office of the
Minerva condominium tower, Contractor recalled how the Mumbai developer
Kirti Kedia approached him and demanded apartments that included
10-by-14 bedrooms and 20-by-20 living rooms, straining the limits of the
regulations before even considering necessities like hallways and
bathrooms. “I said, ‘Come on, Kirti, I can’t beat arithmetic,’ ”
Contractor recalled. “Kirti said, ‘Raja’ . . . he calls me Raja — raja
means king — ‘that is why I have come to you.’ ” Contractor took out his
red felt-tip pen and legal pad and showed me how he did it.
Starting
with the living room, Contractor drew a 20-by-20 square — 400 square
feet. Turning the height of the square into the diameter of a circle, a
bit like Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, Contractor shaved off the
top two corners. This little move cut some 40 square feet off the room.
He applied the same trick to the rectangular bedrooms. “And I got it. I
beat the arithmetic. I showed him the plan the next day. . . . This was
the rage of that time!” Contractor had outsmarted the regulations by
literally cutting corners. The result was the Megh, Malhar and Raag
Towers, a set of organic-shaped buildings. The towers weren’t finished
until years later, but commissions for other buildings rolled in, and
Hafeez became a household name. A 1987 print ad showed him standing atop
his latest bullet-shaped high-rise holding airline tickets. It said
simply: “Hafeez Contractor Flies Swissair.”
Contractor can read new regulations and immediately find
exploitable loopholes and work behind the scenes to shape legislation
that serves his business.
In 1991,
when an economic crisis forced India to adopt I.M.F.-imposed
free-market reforms, Contractor was perfectly positioned to benefit.
Foreign capital poured into the country, and domestic companies boomed.
One day, Contractor was sitting in the restaurant of the Taj Palace
Hotel in New Delhi when he spotted Narayana Murthy, a founder of the
software outsourcing giant Infosys. In 1981, Murthy started the company
with six partners and $250 in pooled capital; now he was a billionaire.
Though Contractor had never met the tycoon before, he seized the
opportunity to pitch his services. As Murthy tells the story, Contractor
walked up to him and asked, “Can I disturb you?” When Contractor
introduced himself, Murthy recalls, “I thought, This guy is so humble,
almost a zero-ego person, and yet he is the most creative architect from
India. After just a brief chat, Murthy concluded that he wanted to work
with Contractor.
In
the early days of Infosys, the company was headquartered in an office
building in downtown Bangalore. But Murthy saw no way to expand there.
The city’s transit system was hopeless. Murthy recalled telling his
colleagues: “Look, if we try to expand in the city, we won’t have enough
car parks. . . . We will create India’s first software campus.”
Contractor
was initially enlisted to add “show buildings” to Murthy’s new
Bangalore campus, including the glass pyramid television studio from
which the company beams its quarterly results to the world. (Murthy told
me he liked I.M. Pei’s addition to the Louvre so much that he had
Contractor build him one.) Soon Contractor was tasked with designing
entire campuses for the company. “We fight a very tough battle here,”
Murthy mused. “We go through all this pollution, traffic, noise, and we
reach our campus, and in a jiffy we are expected to satisfy the needs —
the technological needs — of the most advanced customer from the first
world all day. We have to create an environment where it becomes
easier.” To this end, Murthy demanded all the amenities of a large city
behind the gates. “It has to have bookstores, it has to have food
courts,” he said, “it has to have a swimming pool, it has to have a
cricket pitch.”
As
Sadaf Khan, an Infosys communications staff member, told me bluntly
when I arrived at the gates of the Bangalore headquarters: “This campus
is a different world compared to the rest of the city. When you’re
inside the campus, you might as well not be in Bangalore.”
If
the goal is to conjure a “different world,” Infosys’ campuses are
indisputably successful. But not everyone is happy with the results.
Varun Singh, a 30-year-old middle manager, was enjoying a smoke with his
team of programmers outside the gates of the company’s Pune campus when
he told me that employees didn’t have much access to the recreational
facilities, “because we’re loaded down with work.” His underlings stood
by nodding, impressed with his candor. Working in a chic,
Contractor-designed “dew drop” wowed his parents when they came to
visit, Singh continued, but on a day-to-day basis, the campus irked him.
The location on the edge of town was inconvenient, and after the long
ride from his apartment each morning on a company bus, he still had to
walk a third of a mile from the campus gate to his office. (The golf
cart that I traveled in, he informed me, was reserved for visiting
clients and journalists.) Singh said he would prefer Infosys to operate
out of a more ordinary office building in the city center. But Murthy
tapped Contractor to build exurban campuses precisely because he
concluded that expanding in India’s dysfunctional downtowns wasn’t
feasible.
Contractor
is changing the makeup of those dysfunctional downtowns by building
luxury residences alongside the slum redevelopments he advocated for
with Shiv Sena. In those constructions, the two Indias sit side by side,
but still painstakingly sealed off from each other. As the architect
explained to me, his firm lays out the redevelopment-site plans with an
eye toward keeping the slum dwellers and the condo buyers segregated.
Each group is from a “separate class,” he said. “If you had it combined,
neither the slum guys nor the prospective clients would like it.”
According
to Contractor, prospective clients and slum dwellers alike support his
efforts. At the ribbon-cutting for what would be the first
slum-rehousing apartments abutting the site of his Imperial Towers, the
tenants who inhabited the 2,500 huts that covered the 13-acre site
conducted a religious ceremony to mark the opening. Contractor says the
women put on their finest saris and approached him and the developer
reverently with an oil lamp. “They were taking our aarti,” or
making an offering, Contractor recounted, “giving us as much honor as
they’re giving to a god. So I asked this lady, ‘Why are you doing this?’
She said: ‘Do you know what you have done to our lives? We, all ladies
in the slum, cannot go to a toilet after the sun rises and before the
sun sets, but you are giving us tap water, 24-hours water.’ ”
The architect Hafeez Contractor, center, with members of his staff at his office in Mumbai.Credit
Mahesh Shantaram for The New York Times
The
day after meeting Contractor, I visited the low-income housing next to
the Imperial Towers. Beside the nine-story concrete parking garage that
constitutes the condominiums’ base, teenage boys were absorbed in their
game on an improvised cricket pitch. Inside a building bearing a
spray-painted mural of Bal Thackeray and other local heroes on its
facade, an old man was busy at an ironing board he had set up in the
stairwell as an informal laundry business. Up one flight and down the
dimly lit hallway, I met the seven members of the Khan family in the
225-square-foot apartment they received after the community voted to
give developers the right to build the multimillion-dollar flats.
The
Khans’ original home had been on the footprint of the building where
they live today. Back in the 1950s, the family patriarch moved to Mumbai
as this community was being carved out of steep, flood-prone jungle
land that nobody else wanted. Until their slum was razed, the Khans were
living in a 90-square-foot hut with only corrugated metal sheets to
keep out the rain.
When
I asked the Khans if they were satisfied with the redevelopment, every
member of the family agreed enthusiastically. Even when they become
eligible to sell their flat — after 10 years of residency, as mandated
by the redevelopment policy — they told me they planned to stay. The
access to jobs, markets and services afforded by their central location
outweighs the temptation to part with their 225 square feet of Mumbai,
which was worth, they estimated, $65,000.
In
order for a developer to secure the rights for a coveted plot, 70
percent of the shantytown’s occupants have to vote in favor of that
builder. Developers vie to win over influential community members,
sometimes promising to sweeten the deal with add-ons. Contractor
mentioned providing a free refrigerator in each unit. When I noted the
rampant rumors that development companies pay cash bribes for votes,
Contractor didn’t deny it. “Every country has to go through this kind of
a phase,” he said. “In your country, it was the 1920s and 1930s.”
In
their apartment, however, the Khans told me that there had been only
one developer making an offer for their slum and that there were no
handouts. The community simply accepted the baseline offer to redevelop
the parcel to the minimum standards required by the law. Contractor
points out that under the law, the slum dwellers’ costs are covered by
the developers for 10 years. But the Khans said there were additional
fees associated with the elevators and the fluorescent lighting in the
common hallways. Before redevelopment, they had to pay only a 50-cent
tax to the government each month; now they have to come up with nearly
$9 a month. Covering that cost takes nearly every member of the Khan
family pitching in to augment the $50 a month that 37-year-old Amina
earns as a maid.
As
for Contractor’s story of being thanked for 24-hour running water, the
Khans told me they get running water for only one hour a day — 30
minutes in the morning and another 30 minutes in the evening. When the
water goes on, they fill up buckets to use for the rest of the day or
night. Just next door, in the Imperial Towers penthouse (asking price:
$20 million), the swimming pool is the size of seven slum-redevelopment
apartments combined, and it is always full. Still, the Khans insisted,
they were satisfied with this situation.
Contractor
sees his slum redevelopments as studies in communal harmony in which
both rich and poor “enjoy their own freedom, but they don’t disturb the
other guy’s freedom.” But Sheela Patel, the director of the Society for
the Promotion of Area Resource Centers, an organization that advocates
for the urban poor, considers the rehousing units “vertical slums.” In
many redevelopments, she said, “the space between the [buildings] is six
feet, so the first three or four floors don’t even get sunlight during
the day.” Patel served as the sole NGO representative on the committee
that helped redesign the slum-redevelopment policy after Shiv Sena won
the 1995 elections on its free-housing pledge. “This thing of 70 percent
of the community agreeing to do it, that was our contribution,” she
said. “The developers were violently against that.” But, she says, in
the decades since the policy was enacted, greed and corruption have
rendered it “one more thing that it is done in the name of the poor but
hasn’t improved the quality of habitat for the poor in the sense that it
was meant to be.”
Mumbai’s best-known slum, Dharavi, packs a population
comparable to San Francisco’s into less than one square mile of urban
space.
“If you ask me
what am I most happy about, I wouldn’t say I made a building for the
richest man or that I made one of the tallest buildings in this city,”
Contractor told me in the Minerva sales office, puffing his chest and
flexing his biceps for comic effect. “What I’m really happy about is one
fine day, I got an idea for slum redevelopment. I used to say that
until we do something about the slums, we’re not going to have anything.
We must have a good social-housing policy.”
But
critics like the Mumbai writer Naresh Fernandes dismiss Contractor’s
enthusiasm for market-based policy as self-serving folly. “Instead of
building the sort of public-housing projects that have proved effective
in London, Hong Kong and Singapore,” Fernandes wrote in his 2013 book,
“City Adrift,” “Mumbai decided that its housing crisis should be left to
the whimsies of the private sector.” As a result, only those slums
located on the most desirable plots of land have proved tempting to
developers. When Shiv Sena enacted the redevelopment policy, Fernandes
wrote, it estimated that it would rehouse 800,000 slum dwellers. Now,
nearly two decades later, it has served only 127,000.
Contractor
stands by the policy and insists that even his high-end projects are
not exercises in excess but models of best practices. They set standards
for a developed India that the government must emulate. In talking
about the potable tap water on the Infosys campuses, Contractor offered:
“If Infosys can do it, why can’t the Bangalore city do it? Why can’t
the Mumbai city do it?”
His voice took on a pleading tone: “If we can do it, why can’t you do it?”
Indeed,
in America’s development, what began as private amenities available
only to the rich — indoor plumbing, electric lighting — were eventually
incorporated into public building codes and universalized. In
neighboring China, the pro-market reformer Deng Xiaoping argued, “Let
some get rich first,” and in the decades since his reign, even average
Chinese have seen remarkable improvements in their living standards.
Today 99 percent of Chinese have regular access to a toilet; in India,
the figure is only 49 percent.
Some
argue that if India really is following this well-trod path of
development — just with a late start — the concerns of Contractor’s
critics are misplaced. But China’s rise out of poverty was based on an
authoritarian model that is a nonstarter in democratic India. And even
America’s broad middle class is beginning to look like a 20th-century
anomaly. Besides, Contractor’s projects suggest India is on a different
path altogether.
India’s
social commentators dismiss Contractor’s gaudy creations as real-life
Bollywood sets. But taste aside, they are nothing to sneer at.
Developments like CyberCity and Hiranandani Gardens are more than just
symbols of India’s rise; they are a key part of it. Inside Contractor’s
corporate campuses, with their private, reliable infrastructure, it’s
always business as usual; outside the gates, you’re at the mercy of the
nation that hosted the largest blackout in human history, which left 600
million people without power in 2012. When, for example, the Bangalore
authorities initiate a multiday shutdown of their municipal water system
for “maintenance,” as they have been known to do, you can still make
tea with the tap water at Infosys headquarters and get back to your
spreadsheet. And by permitting Indian professionals to approximate a
Western standard of living without emigrating, Contractor’s residences
can lure Indian executives back to world-class businesses in Mumbai and
Bangalore instead of New York and Silicon Valley.
Discussing
the blackout, Amartya Sen told an audience in Jaipur last January that
the media neglected an important fact. “Two hundred million of those 600
million people never had any power at all,” he said. Equally notable,
though, is the converse: That for the privileged few working on an
Infosys campus or living in one of Contractor’s residential compounds,
the generators kicked in and the lights stayed on. The Indian poor live
in perpetual darkness, and the Indian rich live in perpetual light.
Sen
concluded by exhorting his countrymen to “start making intelligent use
of the resources that economic growth generates” to close India’s
unconscionable social gaps. It is a sensible prescription. But it is not
a politically pressing one in the world’s largest democracy, because
the nation’s problems are no longer an issue for its most fortunate
citizens. They live in a different world now, even when they are right
next door.
Daniel Brook is the author of “A History of Future Cities.” This is his first article for the magazine.
Rajnath Singh asserted that the Government will take all steps to ensure communal harmony. 
